Method of manufacturing fiber products



G. J. MANSON. METHOD OF MANUFACTURING FIBER PRODUCTS.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 15, I919- Patented Bea-13, 1921.

2 SHEETS-SHEET I.

e. 1. mmson. METHOD OF MANUFACTURING FIBER PRODUCTS.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. l5|191 9- 1,399,976. Patented Dec.13,1921.

2 SHEETSSHEET 2- \(Q M ze UNITED STATES GEORGE cums 0]?-'.I.'OBOII'.I.O,' 61113310,

' men or Imus-screams 1 1mm riwnuc'rs.

continuation of application Serial Io. 2,418, fled June 5, 1915. Thisapplication filed larch 15, 1918. Serial Io. 282,780.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Gnoncn Lamas- Mfin- SON, a subject of the King ofGreat ritain, and resident of the city of Toronto, in the Province ofOntario, Dominion of Canada,

have invented certain new and useful Imthe raw wood by the use of anordinary chipprovements in Methods of Manufacturing Fiber Products, ofwhich the following is a specification. 1 A

This invention relates to im rovements in methods of manufacturing berproducts, and it consists of a method of making un- I cooked orchemically untreated, loose, relatively long fibers from raw wood,together with a certain proportion of short fibers, such fibers beingadapted to felt or mat together under pressure to form pulp articles orsheets. The process is designed to make use of what is now generallyconsidered a waste material, namely, saw mill waste comprising slabs,edgings, short butting blocks, slats, burner refuse, sawdust, bark andshavings; and one of the adv tages of the process is that by the use of1:3; material in the manner hereinafter set forth it is possible toobtain a better fiber board than can be obtained if ordinary pulp woodwere ground up. In carryin out the process the saw mill waste is first cipped; it is then fed with water between the ding surfaces of spacedgrinding elements set a short distance apart and having relativemovement to each other, being passed between such surfaces for asuflicient length of time to reduce it to a flexible, feltable fibrousmaterial directly adaptable for the manufacture of gulp board; all asmore fully hereinafter set orth In the art, paper pulp is produced meanddescribed.

chanically by grinding relatively largle blocks of pulp wood, presentedto the grin ing face side on, under high pressure, which 'ves arelatively short ber Paper ul'p as also been manufactured from 0 pswhich are chemically digested in one way or another, or softened inwater and then passed through a grinder or like fiber-treatmg machine.This treatment has the effect of removing, or softening the barbs on thefibers there y impairing the capacity for felting.

In the. invention of the present application, which is a continuation ofmy earlier application Serial No. 32,418 filed June 5,

1915, I operate in a different manner and Specification of LettersPatent.

produce a relatively lar e proportion of long fibered material toget erwith. a. certain.

per to which it is fed by gravity and which three-quarters of an inchwith the grain, and

, produces chips of a size from five-eighths to one-eighth toone-quarter of an inch across the grain. The wood is preferably in theform of saw mill waste including slabs, ed ings, short butting blocks,slats, burner re use, sawdust bark and shav' s. No water is added to thewood, as'it ordlnarily will be found to contain from forty-five to sixtyper cent. of water, but this may be as low as twenty-five per cent. ifthe material has been standing some time.

The raw wood so comminuted is then passed between tapering grindingsurfaces having but a narrow clearance between them, the clearancehowever being sufi'b' ciently wide to accommodate a plurality of fibersside by side. Through this passageway'the comminuted wood is transmittedwith a small stream of water, the proportion of water being such thatthe 1 material 1 coming from the grinder contains about eighty to ninetyper cent. of water. The material .is passed through the grinder in sucha way comminuted wood is passed are not, in the present invention reallythe comminuting means, their roughened surfaces being used more for thepurposes of friction, to cause 'tive movement of the fibers. More reliiice is placed on the mutual rubbing ac- ;tion of. the wood particles oneach other for producing the lateral separation of the fibrous elementsfrom each other. Since the 4 wood is comminhted before entry betweenthese surfaces, the fibers are not broken ofl short, as is inevitablewhen the wood is presented to a grinding surface under great pressure.In a way, my operation is more what may be termed a rolling separationof the fibers than a true grinding action. I

The pur ose of adding the water to the mixture be ore passing into thegrinder is to keep down the temperature and at the same time to make themass fluid enough so that it will feed through the grinders.

The wood is not steamed, soaked in water, treated with chemicals orotherwise chemically prepared in any way prior to my fiber makingoperation, it is raw wood which T use, wood which has not been changedotherwise than b the necessary comminution. The materia or stock comingfrom between the grinding surfaces is then screened in a standardcentrifugal or flat screen. Where .the centrifugal screen is used Iprefer to emplo a ninety plate, that is to say, a plate with holes .090inches in diameter the tailings from which screen are returned to thegrinder. Before screening, sufiicient water is added to render the stockquite fluid, that is to say, until there are about three hundred partswater to one part stock. The fiber product coming from the screens maybe used in same manner as other pulp fiber products, are used in thetrade. I refer to continue the process to make a pm? brand ashereinafter described.

After being screened the stock is thickened. The water added beforescreenin is removed by assing through any standar thickener. T e stockis left with about ninety-seven parts water, or a three per cent.mixture. i

This-three per cent. mixture of pulp and 7 water is then run through apress, which may be of any convenient type depending upon the article tobe produced. When pulp sheets are to be pressed I employ from means toadd about seven per cent. of water to the bone dry board in order toproduce a board whleh will have a water contents corresipondingwith thatof the atmosphere.

will be found that the fiber product produced by the rocess describedhas special qualities in t at there are 'a relatively large percentageof, long fiber bundles, by

two to twenty-eight per cent. of short fibers.

It will be found also that the long fibers will not be completelyseparated from each other but Will be present in bundles having theirends free to interlock; which ends are thoroughly barbed, because therolling action in the grinder of the fibers, one against the other,still leaves the fiber raw and in bundles and with the barbs thereonproduced by the loosened or brushed out ends of the individual fibers.

The fiber board made from ground wood pulp will be found much denserthan board produced from the fibers produced according to my process asthe fibers are smoother than that produced by my rocess, but this denseboard has not as hi an insulating value and is not as economical tomanufacture. The board produced from the fibers produced in my processwill be found to have a slight brownish tingeowing to the resence of thebark. The gums and resin in the bark will also cause a closer adhesionof the fibers acting more or less, as binding,

means.

The grinding surface referred to in the foregoing process may be of avariety of forms, I have devised, however, a form of grinder in whichthe process maybe 600- nomically carried out and which is shown in thedrawings tion. a I

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a sectional elevation of the apparatus.

Fig. 2 is a mechanism.

Fig. 3 is a side view of the rotating grinding element.

Fig. 4 is an end view of the grinding element.

Fig. 5 is a view of a bundle of the barbed accompanying thisspecificafiber of raw wood produced for use in the manufacture of thefiber board aceordingto the present method. a v

plan view of the adjusting 4 Fig. 6 is a -v1ew showing the ordinaryfiber of ground wood pulp.

In the drawings like characters of reference indicate correspondingparts in all the figures. 1

Referring to the drawings, A represents a suitable base having standards10, 11 and Y12 which supportthe shaft B adapted to be turned by aconvenient source of power which has a collar 21 fitting between thecol-j lars 22 and 23 on the shaft B. Ball bearings 24 are shown betweenthe collar 21 and the collars 22 and 23. and well known means foradjusting the shaft in a lengthwise direction may be employed. 4 a

represents the rotary grinding element :which is conicalin form, theouter surface being substantially at an angle of 30 to the axis. Thiselement is secured to and rotates with the shaft B and is adapted tocooperate' with the fixed element D of the grinding pair which issecured to the fixed casing E.

Material is adapted to be fed between the grinding element from afeeding chamber 30 at thesmall end of said members and the ground fibersare adaptedto be withdrawn from the larger peripheries of the grindingpair from the outlet box 31. The feeding may be facilitated by a wormc'onveyer 32 mounted on the shaft B within the feeding chamber 30. r V

The grinding element may be of sandstone or an artificial sandstone suchas is manufactured from a mixture of cement and sharp sand in equalproportions with a sm all percentage, say 10%, of soft material such assawdust, to produce voids therein.

The rotary grinding element C is provided on its surface with aplurality of feeding grooves 33 which extend in a spiral manner aroundon the periphery and are gradually decreased in depth from their by thereduction in depth of the groove;

commencement at the small end of the .cone

to their end near the large end of, the cone.

nel moving in an axial direction is gradually,

forced out between the'grinding elements.

The grinding elements are adjusted rela-i tively to each, other so thatthere will be enough room between the surfaces for the fiber bundlesjtorub against each other and not to he faces. 7 v

The stock is fed continuously under moderate pressure and is distributedbetween the rubbed directly between the surgrinding surfaces by grooves33 v already,

explained. It is necessarythat the continuity of the feed should not beinterrupted be mainand that a continuous film of stock tained betweenthe surfaces, 7

-Where the conical surfaces are of narrow diameter the stock isbroken'up while a finish is imparted to it at thehigh speed of the Anyother convenient fiber produced according tothe present process may beseen by the illustrations represents a: well barbed fiber bundleprogiven in Fig. 5 of the drawings. ,Fig. 5

duced according to the rolling action in the present process, whileFig.' G the ordinary fiber ground wood pulp.- It is found that the wellbarbed fiber produced by my process is more advantageous in making the Vnap on fibers, in that the-barbs interlock to a much greater extent,thereby producing a better nap and Zone not liable to split or peel.

As many changes could be 'made in the above process and many apparentlywidely difierent embodiments of my invention, within the scope of theclaims, produced without departing from thespirit or Scope thereof, itisintended that all matter contained in the accompanying specificationand drawingsshall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limitingsense.

What I claim as m invention is:

'l 'The herein descrl ed process of manufacturing'a fiber product whichcomprises,,

first chipping saw mill waste, then gr nding.

the raw chipped wood with water between closely spaced surfaces having amovemente relative to'each other, such surfaces being sufficiently farapart to permit at the nar- 'rowest point the presence of a plurality offiber bundles therebetween, whereby a rolling separation isefl-ected,'then screeningthe. fibrous material,,then thickening thestock of the screening operation, and then pressing the fibers. V 3. Theherein described process of manufacturing afiber product whichcomprises, first chippin raw wood, then grinding the raw chippe woodwith water between closely spaced surfaces having a movement relative toeach other, such surfaces being s'ufiiciently'far. apart to permit atthe nar .rowest point the presence of a plurality of fiberbundlestherebetween, whereby a rolling separation is effected, -=then screeningthe fibrous material, thenthickening the stock ofjth'escreening'operation, then pressing the" fibers, then drying the pressedmaterial, and

then adding a percentage of water to correspond withfatmosphericconditions. I

4. The herein described'process of manufacturing a fiber product whichcomprises 18.0

first chipping raw' wood, then grinding the chipped wood with waterbetween closely spaced surfaces having a movement relative to eachother, such surfaces being sufficiently far apart to permit at thenarrowest point the presence of a plurality of fibers therebetween,whereby a rolling separation is effected.

5. The herein described process of manufacturing a fiber product whichcomprises grinding relatively small pleces of raw wood with'waterbetween closely spaced surfaces 6. The herein described process ofmanufacturing a fiber product which comprlses grinding relatively smallpieces of raw wood with water between closely spaced surfaces having amovement relative to each other, such surfaces being sufiiciently farapart to permit at the narrowest point the presence of a plurality offiber bundles therebetween whereby a rolling separation is effected,then pressing the fibers produced by the aforesaid grinding operation toform a fiber product.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand'in the presence of awitness.

GEORGE JAMES MANSON.

Witness:

Rossini S. SMART.

